... in answer to Tankwoman's question in the previous post, "Are we really going down this road again?", in reference to going to war with Iran. Also known as, expanding the Iraq War into a regional war.
It'll make the politicians sad I know (Bring 'em home, Bring 'em home) They want to tangle with their foe (Bring 'em home, Bring 'em home)
They want to test the grand theories (Bring 'em home, Bring 'em home) With the blood of you and me (Bring 'em home, Bring 'em home)
We'll give no more brave young lives (Bring 'em home, Bring 'em home) For the gleam in someone's eyes (Bring 'em home, Bring 'em home)
Here was Bush, the junior partner in the Cheney-Bush administration, addressing the UN yesterday. Does this sound like a man who wants to strike a deal with another sovereign government over nuclear issues?
To the people of Iran: The United States respects you; we respect your country. We admire your rich history, your vibrant culture, and your many contributions to civilization. You deserve an opportunity to determine your own future, an economy that rewards your intelligence and your talents, and a society that allows you to fulfill your tremendous potential. The greatest obstacle to this future is that your rulers have chosen to deny you liberty and to use your nation's resources to fund terrorism, and fuel extremism, and pursue nuclear weapons. The United Nations has passed a clear resolution requiring that the regime in Tehran meet its international obligations. Iran must abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions. Despite what the regime tells you, we have no objection to Iran's pursuit of a truly peaceful nuclear power program. We're working toward a diplomatic solution to this crisis. And as we do, we look to the day when you can live in freedom - and America and Iran can be good friends and close partners in the cause of peace. (my emphasis)
I don't know if this means that Cheney and Bush have made a decision to go to war, though it may well mean that.
Josh Marshall is taking a dark view of the UN speech, one that I wish I could say I thought was too pessimistic:
Quite a bit has come out in the last week or so pointing to the conclusion that the Bush administration is making serious preparations for a major military strike on Iran. The tea leaves are always difficult to analyze because you have to weigh the fact that a strike is totally irrational against the fact that the administration is led by folks whose irrationality has been demonstrated again and again. The one piece of data that makes me think they're really going to try it, however, is the news that Don Rumsfeld has apparently put Abram Shulsky (head of what was once the 'Office of Special Plans' (OSP)) in charge of a new DOD outfit, modeled on the OSP, to stovepipe bogus Iran intel from the likes of Manucher Ghorbanifar straight to administration leaders.
That tells me that fundamentally Condi Rice is just window-dressing, like her predecessor Colin Powell, that the Cheney-Rumsfeld Axis remains in place and in charge and that we'll probably be at war with Iran before too long unless someone can stop them.
We are in a crisis right now. It’s known to us, more than it was known to almost anyone outside the White House in 1969 [when Nixon and Kissinger very seriously considered using nuclear weapons on North Vietnam]. A genuine crisis. We are looking at a very high likelihood, I believe, as I read the Seymour Hersh articles about a new war, a new attack on Iran which could involve nuclear weapons — it has been explicitly described as having the possibility of the use of nuclear weapons. The president, Rice, Rumsfeld—they have all been asked specifically: Do we rule out nuclear weapons? They answer, "All options are on the table, nothing is ruled out." And Hersh reveals that plans have been made for the use of nuclear weapons. This would be a new war in addition then to Iraq, quite possibly much, much worse than Iraq in all of its consequences.
This is too crazy to imagine with any other administration. If Hersh were giving those stories about some other administration, whether it’s George Bush Sr. or Gore or whoever it might be, I would say "impossible." The costs of this are too obvious, too horrific, they couldn’t really mean that. You can’t say that about this administration, [though] many people do. The ones who say that it’s too crazy even for these guys I think they are on the wrong foot. It’s not too crazy for these guys. The people who did get us into Iraq are—according to Hersh—on the same kind of "reasoning," prepared to do that to Iran.
Josh Marshall is taking a dark view of the UN speech, one that I wish I could say I thought was too pessimistic:
